Having lost heavily to England and drawn with Scotland in their opening two matches, North Ireland chalked up their first victory of the five-nation competition courtesy of Scott McCullough's winner on 14 minutes.

The Republic squandered their best opening to equalise three minutes from the end when Robbie Benson surged into the box only to blast his shot over the bar from eight yards.

West Ham defender Calum Davenport has had his contract with the club terminated by mutual consent.

The 27-year-old has not played since sustaining leg injuries during a stabbing incident last October, although he recently returned to training.

"We feel it would be in his best interests to allow him to restart his career afresh," a club spokesman said of the former Spurs and Coventry player. "I wish the team every success for the future," the former England U-21 international said.

Cycling

Ninth place on stage of the Tour de Taiwan was sufficient for Belfast's David McCann to retain the overall lead yesterday.

He finished in the main pack at the end of the 123.4km stage. On paper it looks as though the real threat to McCann's supremacy in the seven-day event is coming from the Takashi Miyazawa of the Japanese National Team who made it back-to-back stage wins.

Meanwhile, Sean Lacey of the Edge CC continued his dominance of Irish cycling when he notched his third win of the season in the Carraig Cup held in Carrick-on-Suir yesterday.

Along with the defending champion, Robin Kelly of Comeragh CC, the duo were most the dominant, but towards the end Lacey went ahead to register a solo win.

Basketball

Michael Jordan became the first former player to be a majority team owner in the NBA when his $275m bid to buy the Charlotte Bobcats was unanimously approved by the league's Board of Governors yesterday.

Jordan will take over the money-losing team immediately from Bob Johnson after serving as a minority investor with the final say on basketball decisions since 2006.